[quote=pri_dk]Car, those (ridiculously long) posts are referring to University research.
None of this money goes to any corporations. Sure, some corporations benefit from the science, but – except for a handful of small programs (e.g. Solyndra) – there are NO significant direct financial payments from the government to corporations for their R&D or capital investments.
“Do some more research,” and find us some corporate financial statements of local technology companies (publicly available balance sheets & income statements) that show any substantial entries of the form “payment from government.”
Good luck.[/quote]
When you want to learn something, sometimes you have to READ.
Those numbers do not just include universities (you’re referring to grant money?); they include government grants to private and public people/entities, research done by government agencies, etc. Money spent by state universities and state spending on basic research is separate.
If you can’t understand how massive government spending on basic research subsidizes “private” companies, I can’t help you. It is fascinating, though, how you like to claim that I’m the one who doesn’t understand economics. Funny.